Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-06-11

grandeur than this heart of the Pacific
slope" To the west, the great sea rolls
her crested waves against beetling crags
and giant cliffs, or over wide stretches of
pebbly beaches, and shores of glistening
sands. The gently rounded domes of the
Coast Range, and the snow crowned sum-
mits of the SierTas overlook picturesque
valleys and forest-parked plains. Shasta
and Lassen, the grim sentinels OF the
north, lift their heads into eternal silence.
The great rivers flow through the grain
ladened valleys, looking like ribbons of
silver set in cloth of gold. Innumerable
streams, from their sources in the perpet-
ual SHOW, dash through narrow gorges,
pour in cleaning cataracts down precivit-
Gus mountain sides, and whirl in silent
eddies at the feet of oyer-branching forest
monarchs. Great woods darken the mount
ain sides and green oaks beautify the
valleys.
THE SOIL
OF Central and Northern California is of
remarkable fertility. In the valley of the
Sacramento it was formed at the bottom
of an immense lake, which received the
washings and weatherings from the lofty
ranges that surround it. For untold ages
the potash from the decomposing granite
formations the magnesia and lime from
the weatherings of the magnetism lime
strata, and the soda from the decomposed
vegetation, was carried, year after year,
and deposited in the bottom of this inland
sea, where it was stored up in inexhaust-
ible quantities for the uses of the tillers
of the land in later times. This accounts
for the Incompatible fertility of the val
ley. Judged by the analysis of the chemist
and the experience Of the farmer. there is
no richer soil on the earth than the alu-
vium in this drained bed of what was once
the great Sacramento lake Along the
foothills are the red lands" the soil of
which Is loan composed of sand, clay,
lime, soda, potash, PHOSPHORUS, magnesia
and iron. This red soil has every element
of fertility and is known to be almost in
exhaIstible, bearing annual groupings for
great number of years without requiring
fertilization. The evidence of the mex
haustible fertility of the soil of Northern
California is furnished in the unexampled
wheat product of that section in 1884,
amounting to 35,000,000 bushels, with a
yield of more than so per cent. greater
than the average of the rest of the United
States, and in the enormous yield of fruit
and every other agricultural product
IT'S TIMBER SUPPLY
In her tree growths this section presents
remarkable contrast to the vast treeless
plains and prairie regions east of the
Rocky mountains. Oak growths are found
in every county of the Sacramento valley,
which in many places presents much the
same appearance as the famous oak Open
ings of Michigan and Kentucky. In some
places, on the darker soils near the
streams, the growths have been so large
and thick as to require thinning out in or
der to allow successful cultivation. Some
of these oaks attain enormous size-single
trees making as much as twenty or thirty
cords of wood. Every county in the val
ley has timber enough to furnish fuel for
household use and shade for stock. These
oak growths extend far up on the foothills
on either side of the valley, and at an ele-
vation of $500 feet the great forest belts of
both ranges are met. For size and density
of growth, these forests compare favorably
with those of any other section of the
world. Here are vast growths Of pine,
spruce, fir and cedar These vast pineries
constitute the lumber supply of the whole
country, and are practically inexhaustible.
THE DELTAS OF YJBA AND SUFFER-
COUNTIES
In the center OF this wide and fertile